ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers

for Christians working in education

Science Terminology key.

Knowing science terminology is key to effectively writing up experiments, but simply offering definitions will not be enough to secure understanding, says this primary teacher

The national curriculum emphasises the importance of enquiry-based learning in primary science. This means that pupils will have valuable chances to explore and investigate, but it also necessarily means that they will spend a considerable amount of time writing about their enquiries and recording their findings.

It’s important, therefore, that they have a secure understanding of the language associated with investigative work — and this can be trickier to provide than you might think.

Some terminology misconceptions may be easily addressed with individual pupils through clear, constructive feedback. However, others may need to be explicitly taught. Here are some simple suggestions for teaching three important terms. A word of caution, though: I would definitely not teach all three in one lesson as these are terms that pupils often confuse. Detailed explanations about what they mean can be found on the Association for Science Education (ASE) website.